Content pfp
Content
@
https://opensea.io/collection/books-39
0 reply
0 recast
5 reactions
amelielasker.eth pfp
amelielasker.eth
@amelie
You've probably already heard that today Amazon is pulling the right to download ebooks. This makes it abundantly clear what has always been true: people don't own digital media on web2, and that's a problem. At Alexandria, we debuted ebook download today with our latest release, a collection of thrillers.
24 replies
41 recasts
121 reactions
Andrei pfp
Andrei
@xosmig.eth
Q about the vision for Alexandria: If people own digital media, does it mean they can resell it right after consuming? What stops a few "copies" from saturating the secondary market, bringing prices to near 0? (i.e., to the lowest $ value at which people would bother to resell)
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
amelielasker.eth pfp
amelielasker.eth
@amelie
This is why digital media NFTs can have non-speculative utility. You're absolutely right, if people are just collecting it for entertainment, they can then resell it immediately. This creates a great opportunity for a secondhand ebook economy. There's already a healthy secondhand *physical* book economy, but now authors and publishers can participate in the digital one via creator fees. Still, by reselling, people won't still own the NFT. So these ebook NFTs have collector value separate from reading. It's up to the consumer, how they'd like to treat their book. If they want to read it and then resell at a loss, and treat that loss as a worthy price they paid for the entertainment, they sure can. If they want to keep it in their collection, they can do that too. Some Alexandria collections naturally lend themselves to one of these types of interaction. The Konrath Signature Edition, for example, is really intended for dedicated fans, because the handmade unique covers have inherent collector value.
3 replies
0 recast
2 reactions
amelielasker.eth pfp
amelielasker.eth
@amelie
So far though, we've found that collectors of Alexandria books are buying their books to keep, not to read and resell, even with the much lower priced collections. In this way, collectors of NFT ebooks are behaving more like collectors of physical books (which are still a thriving luxury product).
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Andrei pfp
Andrei
@xosmig.eth
Re. creator fees: does it mean each time I transfer the e-book to someone, I have to pay a fee to the creator? Or only for sales? But then how do you distinguish one from the other?
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Andrei pfp
Andrei
@xosmig.eth
Re. secondhand physical books One thing I always found fascinating about everything "physical" is the benefits of the inherent limitations of the physical world. In this case, buying and reselling secondhand physical books is much harder than digital ones, there are many small markets instead of one global market (so, many more "liquid" copies needed to saturate all of them), and physical books are subject to wear and tear, which limits their reusability.
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction